Fields of Battle questions

[BranFlayk]

I've ordered Fields of Battle, and have looked around at what I can about it.

Apologies if some of these questions will become apparent once I get it, but I'm a bit impatient like that...

Does it have any army lists supplied, or will I have to get some C&C books to work out units/armies? (How "standalone" is it)?

Can anyone compare it to similar mass battle games?

In terms of points/models, what constitutes a small/medium/large game, and how long (roughly) do they take?

Thanks in advance

[Philotomy Jurament]

While I can't help with Fields of Battle questions (although I'll be interested in any answers you receive), you might be interested in the post I just made in the 'What are you reading?' discussion.
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Lost City Campaign Log

[ThrorII]

BranFlayk wrote:
I've ordered Fields of Battle, and have looked around at what I can about it.

Apologies if some of these questions will become apparent once I get it, but I'm a bit impatient like that...

Does it have any army lists supplied, or will I have to get some C&C books to work out units/armies? (How "standalone" is it)?

Can anyone compare it to similar mass battle games?

In terms of points/models, what constitutes a small/medium/large game, and how long (roughly) do they take?

Thanks in advance

I just got this and have skimmed all of it, and read about 2/3s. I really like it and it is quality.

The rule book (44 pages?) has a list of min-battle scenarios at the end, including Unit statistics (the Unit [5-medium/10-small creatures] is the base formation--expanding in to platoons [25-medium/50-small creatures], companies [125/250], battalions [625/1250], etc.

It really helps to have Monsters & Treasures to build Units.

It reminds me much of Mongoose's Open Content Mass Combat rules (as a matter of fact I converted Mongooses OCMC to C&C and I find that it is 70-80% similar to Fields of Battle.

I don't know how long a game takes, but I'd assume it depends on the size of the forces and the scale used (a battle of two armies using Battalion scale would go faster than using Platoon scale, for example).

In all honesty, I find FoB a little clunky and overly elaborate in a few rules (Unit Hit Points vs. OCMS's Hit Points [#creatures per unit x HD], and the Leadership/control rules), however I plan on porting over several FoBb rules in to my OCMS C&C conversion [HD type affecting hit points, size rules from FoB, and the combat manuevers are a few examples].

I think FoB is a true tactical warfare miniatures game, and I plan on simplifiying it a little to make it a roleplaying game mass combat simulator, if that makes sense.

[Treebore]

You may want to follow the other FoB thread in this section of the boards, I have started posting about the battle my group and I started last night.
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[BranFlayk]

Thanks for the replies - I'm really looking forward to getting the book

Will see what the book is like before I splash out on Monsters and Trasures (or will see if I convert things from AD&D 2nd ed, which I still have somewhere at home).

Part of what I'd like to do is have different types of humans (ie, Romans vs Barbarians), so not sure if Monsters book is necessarily the right one (although will also want to make units of undead, orcs etc).

[Bowbe]

I definitely had "Humans vs. Humans" and historic battles in mind as part of the inspiration for making this game. Not just a fantasy centric thing for me. My fantasy worlds tend to be low fantasy with human dominated cultures and very small enclaves of dwarves/elves/halflings to appease my players "need" to play somethingother than human. Though in my experience my players "needs" are simply to w**k about with some special power or another that is typically grossly overpowered compared to what other races get. (Gnomes, i'm looking at you).